Duff House Royal, Banff, Scotland (pics)

[Eric_Terhorst]

On my recent all-too-brief trip to Scotland, I saw several of the north’s prominent courses, including Dornoch, Brora, Cruden Bay, and Nairn, but was also determined to get off the beaten path a little bit.  Our visit included a round at Duff House Royal in Banff, Scotland.

According the Club’s web site: 
The original course in its present location was laid out in 1909 and was formally opened by a match between two of the great "Triumvirate" - JH Taylor (the then Open Champion) and James Braid. The par was 83 and Taylor scored 75 to Braid's 78.
In 1923 the course was redesigned by the brilliant Golf Architects Dr A and Major C.A Mackenzie... On 5th August 1924 the Mackenzie course was formally opened with a match between Sandy Herd of Moor Park and Ted Ray of Oxley, both returning scores of 71. In the same year, Her Royal Highness The Princess Louise intimated that she desired that the club be known as Duff House Royal Golf Club, and on 1st January 1925 the two Banff Clubs formally amalgamated as The Duff House Royal Golf Club.

The parkland course is bounded by the River Deveron and occupies a smallish, flat piece of riverside property.  With an imaginative routing and large, undulating greens (that aren’t quite done justice by these pics taken in flat lighting), Mackenzie fashioned a course on flatland that fits his ideal of offering challenge, beauty, and plenty of golfing enjoyment.  It seems like the membership has kept the trees under control and I’d guess fairway corridors are about as Mackenzie intended.  While I found the course a little soft from Scotland’s rainy summer of ’09, I think it would be great to see it again after a spate of dry weather, and would recommend a detour to those in the area, if you’d like to enjoy a little rest from links golf and see several architecturally interesting holes and many fine highly contoured greens. 

As you can see in these aerial views courtesy of Google Earth, there is a bit of back and forth in the first few holes, but with varied bunkering the par 4s 1-5 each offer a slightly different challenge.

Holes 1-5, most of 16, and 17 and 18 shown in this aerial


This pic taken from the 5th tee shows how closely it and the 4th green, 3rd tee, and 2nd green come together at the western corner of the northern part of the property.


Holes 7-16 play along the river, then away and back


This pic of the 1st illustrates how the fairways are generally pretty generous.


The 1st offers an early intrigue with the first of two terrific double greens—this one for 1-17




The 2nd and 3rd greens, excerpts below, continue the theme of interesting contouring and bunkering.





#5 from the tee illustrates the scenic qualities of the course


Note how the green at 5 is built around a smallish slightly camouflaged  bunker




The par 3 6th with its deceptive bunkering and the strong par 4 15th share a green that has to be one of the largest in Scotland outside of St. Andrews.  I mis-clubbed and hit my approach on the 6th well past the pin, but instead of recovery from a hazard, I had an 80 or 90 foot putt to deal with.




The challenge gets stronger at the long par 4 7th,  bounded by river visible on the left and terminating in another large green that slopes off at the back.


Three of the five par 3s—6, 9, and 16--are fine golf holes, worth the price of admission by themselves—this L-shaped green on #9 has room for 2-3 club variation in pin placement—played about 140 yards from the forward tee with the pin in front as shown, but has a nameplate yardage of 172 from the Medal tee.




The bunkerless par 5 12th “Plateau” requires a draw off the tee to get in the ideal position for your approach, then offers a potential to run a ball up the steep slope of a fascinating green, all framed by a pretty view of Duff House



On #15, the golfer encounters the other half of the double seen at #6


Two strong holes at 16 and 17 likely play important roles in many matches.  The 16th is a 240-yd par 3, with river right and bunkers guarding the left side of the green.




The 460 yd 17th has a set of three bunkers that must be carried off the tee and a challenging green shared with #1


Going back home, the short 18th is defended by a green that slopes 6 or 8 feet from back to front.




Check out Duff House Royal next time you’re traveling between Dornoch and Cruden Bay…a nice course in a beautiful setting.

[Sean_A]

Eric

Thanks for the pix.  The course looks really interesting around the greens.  How do they run?

Ciao

[Neil_Crafter]

Eric
Appreciate you posting your pics and a brief review of the course. As Sean indicated, the greens look very interesting and while I am not full bottle on the history of this course it seems fair to assume that the greens remain fairly original.
Neil

[Rich Goodale]

Great stuff, Eric.

I am always astonished how good are most of the courses I have bypassed in my tours around Scotland.  Duff House Royal looks like a lot of fun and challenge to play.

I'm also reminded by your posts how deceiving 2-D aerials can be.  If you had only posted the Google view I would never have given DHR another thought, but with your fine ground level pictures it is a place I might just stop by and see next time I'm in Morayshire.

Rich

PS--enjoyed meeting you and your wife in Dornoch and I'm glad you seemed to enjoy the trip.  Maybe we'll get a game next time.

rfg

[Jason McNamara]

Thanks Eric.  Just wondering, what led you to pick DHR over R Tarlair?  (Or did you do both?)

[Robin_Hiseman]

I did a consultancy visit to DHR a few years back, knowing in advance of its Mackenzie connection, but not honestly expecting very much so long after the event.  Well, if they are not original Mackenzie greens, then someone has done a terrific job of replicating them.  For what is a modest golf club, the greens are extraordinary, both in terms of their contour and size.  I didn't have time to play that day and it is my regret that in the 7 years that I lived in NE Scotland, that I never got back there.

Asides from the tremendous greens, there are one or two typical Mackenzie touches with the bunkering.  On the 15th (which is shown in the photos), from the tee you would swear that the bunkers on the left towards the green are set together, close by the putting surface.  It is only once you get well down the hole that you can see that they are in fact set well apart, with the bunker nearer the centre of the fairway being set well short of the green.  In the photograph you can start to see this separation, but if you look at the Google Earth image, you can really see what I mean.

DHR also has one of the most intimidating 1st tee shots I can imagine.  The tee is virtually in the bar!  I was there during a society outing and the sledging going on would have embarrassed an Aussie slip cordon!

DHR is also the one that generally gets away when you are challenged to name all the royal clubs, follwed closely by Royal Tarlair.

Worth a trip if only to see the greens.  It's just a shame that the bunker shaping doesn't serve as a compliment.  Decent Mackenzie style bunkering would really elevate the status of this course.

[Eric_Terhorst]

Thanks for your comments.

Sean, the greens were smooth but slow on the day we visited--but I think that was because of the plentiful rain earlier in the week and month of August and the misty-rain we had during our visit.  There looked to be many possible pin placements on knobs and swales on the large greens that could make putting a puzzle, and precise iron shots played away from some pins to feed the ball in might be required in dryer conditions.  The difference in "how the ball runs" was startling though, in the immediate comparison of this parkland course to the links we played.

Rich, enjoyed meeting you too, I hope the next time isn't too far down the fairway!

Jason, all of the courses in that part of northeast Scotland were obscure to me, and this one stood out for being a parkland Mackenzie that one drives by on the scenic coastal route from Dornoch to C. Bay. As we drove by Tarlair on our way out of Macduff, I thought it looked very interesting and also differentiated by its bluff-top setting.  We chose to play Moray (Old) at Lossiemouth on our way to Duff House Royal and Banff, and though I enjoyed the course at Moray, we had 3-4 too many jet fighter flights for my taste at that venue.  On my next visit, I would skip Moray and play Tarlair, Fraserburgh, Cullen, or all of the above if possible.

[Cristian]

These are indeed great Green sites! Makes you want to hop on the plane and play there immediately. Seems like the kind of course that is very playable and enjoyable for both high and low handicapper. Is the club open for visitors at weekends?

[Bill_McBride]

Robin, please define and elaborate!  (This is one of my very favorite things about this website, learning about other cultures!) 

"I was there during a society outing and the sledging going on would have embarrassed an Aussie slip cordon!"

[Andrew Mitchell]

Eric

Thanks for posting these.  The greensites look challenging.  DHR certainly looks worth a visit when in the NE of Scotland

[Robin_Hiseman]

My pleasure Bill.

It's basically a cricketing analogy. Sledging is verbal abuse; the kind you would be familiar with coming from a back stop to a batter.  The slip cordon is a line of attacking fielders, arranged in an line behind the batsman, poised to catch an 'edged' shot.  They are generally well within the batsman's earshot.

The following is probably the best and most famous sledge.


Glenn McGrath v Eddo Brandes:

McGrath was bowling to the Zimbabwe number 11 and Brandes' bat was nowhere near the ball. A frustrated McGrath yelled "Why are you so fat?" Not to be outdone, Brandes replied,"Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit."

[Bill_McBride]

My pleasure Bill.

It's basically a cricketing analogy. Sledging is verbal abuse; the kind you would be familiar with coming from a back stop to a batter.  The slip cordon is a line of attacking fielders, arranged in an line behind the batsman, poised to catch an 'edged' shot.  They are generally well within the batsman's earshot.

The following is probably the best and most famous sledge.


Glenn McGrath v Eddo Brandes:

McGrath was bowling to the Zimbabwe number 11 and Brandes' bat was nowhere near the ball. A frustrated McGrath yelled "Why are you so fat?" Not to be outdone, Brandes replied,"Because every time I make love to your wife, she gives me a biscuit."

Got it, thanks! 

[Mark Arata]

we almost played here, stayed right up the road at Banff House, but we ended up playing at Fraserburgh instead.
It looked like a lot of fun from the road on the drive past it, and the clubhouse was hopping on a wed night for whatever function they had going on.....maybe next time.

Most all of the courses we played in Scotland were more than happy to allow vistors on weekends, some had no delays at all, others were not until after 10am or 2:30 pm.....we really had no issues picking up games when we needed to fill in a part of the schedule, or when we lost the ballot for TOC.

[David_Tepper]

Mark -

What did you think of Fraserburgh? Any reason you decided to play there instead of Peterhead?

DT

[Mark Arata]

I really liked Fraserburg, it sort of looks like nothing from the clubhouse, the first and last holes are rather plain and boring, but once you climb up the hill and play down the other side, there are some pretty cool golf holes, especially around the beginning of the back 9.

To be honest, it was all David Kelly's call, we were supposed to play 2 at Cruden Bay that day, but the course wasnt in the best of shape and because of all the rain, the rough was impossibly high. So we decided to pick another course in the area and he chose Fraserburg. I would play it again, it was fun.

We passed by so many little courses that looked like a blast to play, but in the 2 weeks we were there, we played 14 different courses and got in 20 rounds so we did ok. Had to save something for the next trip right?  

[Phil McDade]

Mark:

Glad to hear you enjoyed Fraserburgh; may Eric now be jealous that he blew off my advice to play there.

Eric:

Nice photos of Duff House Royal -- those bunkers are quite different it seems than what you'd find in most of Scotland. I didn't realize it had some double-greens, which is interesting.

Jason:

Royal Tarlair is not that great of a course -- most of it's played along a rather boring and flat meadow above the cliffs, with some back and forthing. A few holes that move toward, and then out of, the clifftops are interesting, and #13 (Clivet) is truly great, a 150-yard verson of Pebble Beach's 7th. But that one hole is so good that it overshadows the rest of the course, which really doesn't offer much. (I played it instead of DHRoyal when the latter was firm that I could not play in the middle of the scheduled ladies tourney the day I was there.)

Cullen, just down the road (west) from Banff, is great fun, a short and sporty course that winds its way around giant sea stacks that come into play.

David:

I think Fraserburgh is a good notch above Peterhead -- Peterhead has a terrific back nine, but the course takes a long time to get going (the first three holes are downright mundane), and really doesn't have much of interest, I thought, until the 7th or 8th hole. Fraserburgh to me had a more solid and consistent stretch of holes that put a real premium on approach shots, as the greens tend to run on the small side.